GUE Rec-1

Course Outcomes

The GUE Recreational Diver Level 1 course is designed to develop the essential skills required for all sound diving practice. It helps the non-diver cultivate a platform that supports comfort, confidence, and competence in the water, as well as more advanced training in the future.

Prerequisites

Applicants for a Rec 1 course must:

Submit a completed registration form, a medical history, and a liability release to GUE Headquarters.

Obtain a physician’s prior written authorization for the use of prescription drugs, except for birth control, or for any prior medical condition that may pose a risk while diving.

Be a minimum of 16 years of age.

Course Content

The Recreational Diver Level 1 course is conducted over a minimum of five days, and includes fourteen dives and at least forty hours of instruction, encompassing classroom, land drills, and in-water work.

Rec 1 Specific Training Standards

Student-to-instructor ratio is not to exceed 8:1 during land drill or surface exercises; it is not to exceed 4:1 during any in-water training.

Demonstrate awareness of team member location and a concern for safety, responding quickly to visual indications and dive partner needs.

Efficiently and comfortably demonstrate how to donate gas to an out-of-gas diver followed by an ascent to the surface, utilizing minimum decompression.

Comfortably demonstrate at least two propulsion techniques that would be appropriate in delicate and/or silty environments; students should demonstrate comprehension of the components necessary for a successful backward kick.

Demonstrate a safe and responsible demeanor throughout all training.

Demonstrate reasonable proficiency in the ability to deploy a surface marker buoy while utilizing a spool.

Demonstrate good buoyancy and trim, i.e. approximate reference is a maximum of 30 degrees off horizontal while remaining within 5 feet/1.5 meters of a target depth.

Demonstrate proficiency in underwater communication.

Demonstrate basic equipment proficiency and an understanding of the GUE equipment configuration.

Demonstrate aptitude in the following open-water skills: mask clearing, mask removal and replacement, regulator removal and exchange, long hose deployment.